healing

had surgery on my elbow, too much typing hurts. i should be able to fully use my arm late next week and then i'll update the blog. i've got some new photos to share :)

Playing with letters and making "bird food"

H&J are so into learning letters that I found some printables online for them to play with. Here they are using the pom pom alphabet cards, but instead of pom poms, they are using magnets that we made using wooden discs from Michael's, glued to heavy duty 1/2' magnets. I gave them each a stack of cards on a metal tray and a pile of magnets, and they had tons of fun building letters.

The kids have been loving watching the birds eating from the birdfeeders, and are surprising me with their bird identification skills! Last week we decided to make pinecone birdfeeders, hoping to entice even more birds to the yard. We changed the recipe a bit, adding peanut butter and millet and the birds seem to be enjoying it. The other day we saw a bird on the feeder that I didn't recognize, and I wondered aloud what kind it was. I was quite matter of fact-ly informed by Henry that it was a grackle. Google determined that it actually was! We will definitely be learning more about birds.

All children deserve a healthy world and a healthy life

A Wake-Up Story from Healthy Child Healthy World on Vimeo.

giveaway sharing

Homeschooling mamas, Check out this sweet giveaway at Delightful Learning!
http://delightfullearning.com/2010/01/lacing-buttons-review-and-giveaway/comment-page-4/#comment-3229
I'm not sure how, but I've only recently learned about Learning Resources. They have some really cute things that would be fun to incorporate into our learning play.

Toddler art and OCD don't play well together -or- Oh No!! They are mixing the colors!!!

 

I'm pretty good about letting the kids explore a new material on their on own terms, but I did bristle when the dough colors started mixing. I know it's my own hang up. They would happily smash all the colors together and make brown. I also know that I'll eventually get over it and give them more than two colors at a time and let them have at it. But, for the time being, they each choose a color and shred it to bits with the dough scissors, and then mash it back together and make snakes cadapidders. There was a lot of kneading and pinching and flattening too. This is only their 2nd time with play dough (I was nervous about the wheat, and the w/f dough that we tried to make was terrible) , and we'll have many more chances to experiment with it. I'm guessing that right now, it's more about playing with motor skills anyway. I'm wondering what other parents do with dough. What happens to the dough that is all mixed together? Do you just pick the dominant color and store it in that container? Do you have a separate container just for it? What's really interesting to me is that I have no problem with paint being mixed in the paint pots.